Novels in Verse (YA)

Poems are short things, often tiny
Written with precision and great pain
Imagine a novel written in poetry

Embrace this ancient form’s fantasy
Try something interesting, out of your domain
Poems are short things, often tiny
Imagine a novel written in poetry

Updated August 11, 2024
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The Black Flamingo
Atta, Dean
Paper Book
Stonewall Book Award Winner * A Time Magazine Best YA Book Of All Time A fierce coming-of-age verse novel about identity and the power of drag, from acclaimed poet and performer Dean Atta. Perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo, Jason Reynolds, and Kacen Callender. Michael is a mixed...
The boy lost in the maze
Coelho, Joseph
Ebook
From the UK Children's Laureate comes a spellbinding YA novel in verse blending the ancient myth of Theseus and the Minotaur with the quest of a modern-day teen in search of his father. Theo, a seventeen-year-old London schoolboy with a single mother, is desperate to track...
Bull
Elliott, David
Paper Book
Much like Lin-Manuel Miranda did in Hamilton, the New York Times best-selling author David Elliott turns a classic on its head in form and approach, updating the timeless story of Theseus and the Minotaur. A rough, rowdy, and darkly comedic young adult retelling in verse, which NPR called...
Enter the body
McCullough, Joy
Paper Book
"At once tender, poetic and ferocious, Enter The Body breathes new life into the Bard's most tragic heroines. More than a tribute to Shakespeare, this kaleidoscopic, ambitious novel-in-verse gives Juliet, Ophelia, Cordelia, and Lavinia the chance to tell their own stories full of passion,...
House arrest
Holt, K. A.
Ebook
"Moving . . . Readers will nod their heads in sympathy with this guy who breaks the rules for all of the right reasons." --The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books   A Bank Street College of Education Best Book of the Year ...
Not hungry
Quinn, Kate Karyus
Paper Book
June is fat. June also has an eating disorder, but no one sees. When she doesn't eat, her friends and family think they see a fat girl on a diet, not someone starving herself. When June's secret is found out by Toby, the new boy next door, she is panicked. Then she learns he also has a secret....
Nothing burns as bright as you
Woodfolk, Ashley
Paper Book
Five starred reviews! From New York Times bestselling author Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You is an impassioned stand-alone tale of queer love, grief, and the complexity of female friendship. Two girls. One wild and reckless day. Years of...
The poet X
Acevedo, Elizabeth
Paper Book
Winner of the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, and the Pura Belpré Award! Fans of Jacqueline Woodson, Meg Medina, and Jason Reynolds will fall hard for this astonishing New York Times-bestselling novel-in-verse by an award...
Punching the air
Zoboi, Ibi Aanu
Paper Book
New York Times and USA Today bestseller * Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor * Walter Award Winner * Goodreads Finalist for Best Teen Book of the Year * Time Magazine Best Book of the Year * Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year * Shelf Awareness Best Book of...
The realm of possibility
Levithan, David
Paper Book
In this new novel by the acclaimed author of "Boy Meets Boy," readers meet a boy whose girlfriend is in love with a fictional character; a girl who loves the boy who wears all black; and a girl who writes love songs for a girl she can't have in a story about those ever-changing moments of love and...
The seventh raven
Elliott, David
Paper Book
Best-selling author David Elliott examines the timeless themes of balance, transformation, and restoration in this evocative tale about a girl who will stop at nothing to reverse a curse that turned her seven brothers into ravens.  And these are the sons ...
Swing
Alexander, Kwame
Paper Book
In this YA novel in verse from bestselling authors Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess (Solo), which Kirkus called "lively, moving, and heartfelt" in a starred review, Noah and Walt just want to leave their geek days behind and find "cool," but in the process discover a lot about first loves,...
Switch
King, A. S.
Paper Book
A surreal and timely novel about the effects of isolation and what it means to be connected to the world from the Printz Award-winning author of Dig. Time has stopped. It's been June 23, 2020 for nearly a year as far as anyone can tell. Frantic adults demand...
Three things I know are true : a novel
Culley, Betty
Paper Book
Fans of Jandy Nelson and Marieke Nijkamp will love this deeply moving novel in verse about the aftermath of a gun accident. Life changes forever for Liv when her older brother, Jonah, accidentally shoots himself with his best friend Clay's father's gun. Now Jonah needs round...
Voices
Elliott, David
Ebook
"Stunning . . . elegant . . . arresting . . . supple and harrowing." - The Wall Street Journal ★"An innovative, entrancing account of a popular figure that will appeal to fans of verse, history, and biography." - Kirkus, starred review In...
We are the ashes, we are the fire
McCullough, Joy
Paper Book
From the author of the acclaimed Blood Water Paint, a new contemporary YA novel in prose and verse about a girl struggling with guilt and a desire for revenge after her sister's rapist escapes with no prison time. Em Morales's older sister was raped by another student...
White Rose
Wilson, Kip
Paper Book
"In a searing indictment of silent complicity, White Rose shines a light on one remarkable young woman's insistence on the power of truth, no matter the cost. A timely call to resistance." - Joy McCullough, author of Blood Water Paint "White Rose is a resonant...

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